Primary Initial Teacher Education (with QTS) BA (Hons)

What makes training to teach at Worcester special?

When
you’ve decided you want to be a primary school teacher, you’ll want your degree
to lead you smoothly into this fulfilling, rewarding career. At Worcester, we
have excellent contacts with the schools in the region where you’ll do your
placements. They also keep us up to date with job vacancies, so not
surprisingly, our employability statistics are very impressive.

You’ll
also experience a great sense of community on the course. The majority of sessions are delivered in small seminar groups, with some whole cohort sessions. You will receive excellent academic and personal support from your tutors throughout the course and exceptional guidance from mentors and colleagues in schools.

Primary Initial Teacher Education - Early Years received 100% student satisfaction in the 2017 National Student Survey.

Key features

Good balance between teaching and placements –
including a two week placement in the first term, where you’ll experience
school life and learn about the role of the class teacher

The opportunity to carry out placements in different schools to provide a broad yet personalised experienced, tailored to specific needs

‘Beyond the Classroom’ module, offering you the opportunity to carry out a placement outside the classroom – for example, with a museum, Brownies or Cubs, Camp America, or sports coaching – and to develop a wider understanding of teaching pedagogy and management of behaviour

Entry requirements

What qualifications will you need?

Entry requirements

A minimum of 4 GCSEs at
grade C/4 which must include in Maths, English Language and a Science
(equivalent qualifications will be considered*)

Candidates will be expected to have had some experience in a UK primary school setting and to include this as part of the supporting statement in their application. See our personal statement advice.

Shortlisted applicants will be interviewed. The NCTL requires all trainee teachers, prior to starting the course, to satisfactorily complete a medical questionnaire to demonstrate their fitness to teach and to get a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

If you have lived overseas for three months or more in the
last five years a Certificate of Good Conduct from the country of residence
will be required. Further information and guidance associated with additional
costs are available at the Home Office website.

You will also be subject to the usual prohibition list and criminal record checks.

*For further details on our GCSE equivalence tests, or if your qualifications are not listed, please contact AdmissionsA@worc.ac.uk or telephone 01905 855111.

Professional skills tests

All applicants for teacher training courses need to take the numeracy and literacy professional skills tests as part of the application process. You will need to ensure you have passed them both before the start of the course.

The tests are required in addition to your mathematics and English GCSEs, and are designed to show that you have the basic levels of literacy and numeracy needed to teach to a national standard. They will not test your knowledge of the curriculum or how to teach.

The first three attempts at taking your skills tests in each subject are provided free of charge.

Support we offer

We offer free skills tests workshops if you have accepted a place on the course. If you are unsuccessful on your first attempt of the skills test then we will also provide one-to-one support in both numeracy and literacy.

The course is bringing the students into the sphere of the very best in education practice... this is because the staff are well-informed and engaged with their subjects and areas of interest and pass this enthusiasm to their students.

External Examiners (2017)

Course content

What will you study?

Here is an overview of current modules available on this course. Regular updates may mean that exact module titles may differ.

Year 1

Term One
Professional Studies; Core Subjects 1 (English, Mathematics and Science); ICT.
Foundation subjects.
Block school experience - opportunity to work in all age phases.

Term Two Age phase programme to be pursued for duration or course: 3-7 years or 5-11 years.
Professional Studies; Foundation Subjects.
Block school experience (4 weeks).

Term Two Block school experience (8 weeks) including classroom-based, small-scale research project.

Term Three
Completion of: Professional Studies: Final preparation for NQT; Core Subjects 5 (English, Mathematics and Science); ICT; Professional Research in Specialist Subject (including Research Methods and Curriculum Area option).

Additional opportunities

You'll be able to engage in a diverse range of additional opportunities to enhance your development. Including:

MiniMe Yoga - see how yoga and
other mindful exercises can be used in the classrooms to support children’s and
staff’s emotional wellbeing

Signalong - in these externally
run courses you are trained to communicate
with children of all abilities

Students
as Academic Partners - a paid opportunity for you work in partnership with academic staff to strengthen the student learning experience at Worcester for the benefit of all. Successful projects include the development of a resource to support the teaching of phonics; the use of iPads in the classroom; and organising a values led conference for primary age children.

An absolute pleasure and could not have spent a better 3 years of my life. It was a joy to be here and I only have fond memories of UW. I'm sad to leave.

Intuition

Teaching and Assessment

How will you be taught?

Teaching and Learning

The University places emphasis on enabling students to develop the independent learning capabilities that will equip you for lifelong learning and future employment, as well as academic achievement. A mixture of independent study, teaching and academic support through the personal academic tutoring system enables you to reflect on progress. You will build up a profile of skills, achievements and experiences that will enable you to flourish and be successful.

Teaching

You are taught through a combination of interactive seminars, workshops and lectures. The seminars will enable you to link educational theory to practice through reflection and evaluation. You will have seminars in all National Curriculum subjects to enable you to experience the full range of educational provision in primary schools. Practical subjects will be taught in specialist spaces such as DT rooms, gymnasiums and dance studios.

You will have the opportunity to plan and deliver lessons in your seminar rooms and then take them into placement to teach in the classroom. Following placement your seminars will give you opportunities to discuss your teaching – what went well and what changes you would make in the future – linked to the Teachers’ Standards. Workshops delivered by Head Teachers and teachers in school will complement your seminars to ensure you are constantly up to date with current practice in the classroom. In addition, meetings, called Staging Posts, with personal academic tutors are scheduled on at least 4 occasions in each year of your course.

You will also undertake placements in each year of study matched to your pathway choice (3-7 or 5-11 year olds). You will receive training on how to succeed in placement through successfully meeting the Teachers’ Standards over the three years of study. You will receive outstanding support whilst in school from trained mentors and class teachers, as well as a tutor from University who will observe you teach and give instant feedback to ensure you continue to improve through reflective practice.

Contact time

In a typical week you will have around 18-24 contact hours of teaching. The precise contact hours will depend on the optional modules selected and in the final year, you will normally have slightly less contact time in order to do more independent study.

Typically class contact time will be structured around:

4 hours of large group lectures

18 hours of seminars / workshops in groups of around 28 students

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around 36 hours of personal self-study per week. Typically, this will involve pre and post reading for each of your seminars or large group lectures, completion of subject audits, working on group activities or presentations, undertaking research in the library and online, preparing for coursework assignments and /or placement.

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes senior academics, professional practitioners with school experience and senior leaders from school.

Teaching in based on research and consultancy, and 33% per cent of course lecturers have a higher education teaching qualification or are Fellows or Senior Fellows of the Higher Education Academy. You can learn more about the staff by visiting our staff profiles.

Assessment

Each module has one or more formal or ‘summative’ assessments, which are graded and count towards the overall module grade. Assessment tasks are designed to assess the appropriate level of professional and academic knowledge, understanding and skills required and which encourage increasing levels of independence as well as the development of critical analysis, reflection and evaluation.

Assessment methods include a range of coursework assessments such as essays, presentations, production of lesson plans and resources, subject profiles and a final year research dissertation.

The formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is:

Year 3

In addition, mentors undertake continuous assessment of your progress whilst you are on school experience (SE). In discussion with the University School Experience tutor, a final written report on progress is produced, indicating the level of suitability and aptitude for primary teaching. Assessment of your performance is graded against the Professional Standards for QTS and increase in demand with each placement. Grades are based on two features of SE:

continuous assessment of performance in relation to learning outcomes against the Professional Standards for QTS;

the SE file, including a record of work with children and responses to tasks set for the placement.

Feedback

You will receive feedback on formal assessments undertaken by coursework. Feedback supports learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate.

We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

Careers

Where could it take you?

Our Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) have one of the highest employment rates of all graduates. There are excellent employment opportunities and good promotion prospects alongside job security. At the end of the course you will be advised about suitable in-service courses to follow in your teaching career, as part of your continuing professional development.

You will be invited to enrol on the Masters programme after your successful completion of the BA (Hons).

University of Worcester Newly Qualified Teachers
have been awarded ‘NQTs of the Year 2014-15’ in the City of Wolverhampton for
their dedication and enthusiasm to the teaching profession. Congratulations to
both of our graduates, Heather Proudler and Stephanie Wignall.

Case study

Alex Holloway

Alex Holloway believes his time studying at the University of Worcester has set him up for life as a teacher.

“The teaching profession is filled with amazing people,” said Alex.

“It is a difficult job and a tiring job, but the feeling you get from doing it makes it all worth it... there's not a job I can think of that could give you more satisfaction”

The quality of the reflective students who can see a clear link between theory and practice in developing their practice is to be commended. This is due to the high quality and highly relevant content of the course.

Additional costs

Every course has day-to-day costs for essential books,
stationery, printing and photocopying.

Travel costs for placements vary depending on the
location of schools and your mode of transport, sometimes these may be
reclaimed depending on your individual circumstances.

If you have lived overseas for three months or more in the
last five years a Certificate of Good Conduct from the country of residence
will be required. More information and guidance on costs are available from the Home Office.
You will also be subject to the usual prohibition list and
criminal record checks.

Accommodation

Finding the right accommodation is paramount to your university experience, and our welcoming student communities are great places to live and study.

We have over 1,000 rooms across our halls of residence. With rooms to suit every budget and need, from our 'Traditional Hall' at £98 per week to 'En-suite Extra' at £159 per week.